En Route To Cochin, India - Day 41

NOTE: Five pictures from yesterday including three from Fort Jesus with one of school children who we saw. One picture from the port showing the Crystal Cruises shore excursion manager. The two guards each had rifles. One picture of a ferry. We took one similar to this except much older with lots of rust when we visited Mombasa in 2007.

Two pictures from outside the Main Dining Room late evening. One of the featured items was Parrot Fish, which was brought onto the ship from Mombasa.

We wanted to begin with some thoughts about yesterday’s visit to Mombasa, Kenya. Clearly, the last two ports have been quite different than the places that most passengers on the ship come from. It is a reminder to us about the diversity of the world we live and that the customs, practices, terrain, and the opportunity and the economy does differ a great deal around the world. There is no question that these two ports of call were greatly influenced by the Middle East.

While these two are not our favorite ports and most passengers would agree, we learn much from having the opportunity to see a wide range of places around the world as a reminder to us of why people do not see the same things from the same perspective. What we consider a challenge is quite different than what people in other places consider a challenge. What we consider to be a hardship is quite different than others might consider a hardship to be based on where they live. The same goes for a vast number of items.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner last evening with another couple who are frequent cruisers with Crystal who we have gotten to know much better this year although we have sailed with them on prior cruises. This is their seventh World Cruise with Crystal. We had a very nice conversation with them as we all enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant. In fact, we each ordered a few items that the other couple had never tasted before and we all enjoyed tasting them as well. Their adult son who travels with them on the World Cruises was unable to dine with us last evening as he was a little under the weather and we hope to dine with all three of them before the voyage is over.

We can’t say enough how much we enjoy the food at Silk Road. One of the items that we learned from the couple we dined with last evening when Keith spoke with them a while back is that for many people who live in Japan Sushi is not a regular part of the diet. Rather Sushi and Sashimi are normally enjoyed on special occasions such as ringing in the New Year, or to celebrate a Birthday.

Before going to bed last evening we moved the clocks forward one additional hour as we sail into yet another new time zone. We are now nine hours ahead of those on Eastern Standard Time with additional changes in time that will take place on this leg of the World Cruise.

Today marks the first of seven consecutive days as we sail to our next port of call in Cochin, India. There are two ports that were removed from this leg and announced shortly before the start of the World Cruise as we are taking a different route to bypass areas where there is a large pirate presence. As we have mentioned this is one of many actions that have been taken to provide added security for the ship and for all passengers and crew. In recent days, there has been additional crew posted on the decks 7 x 24. We appreciate the action(s) that Crystal takes to keep us all out of harms way.

In preparation for our seven days at sea additional supplies including food were brought onto the ship yesterday. Some of these items are local and others were part of a shipment that arrived to the ship from Holland.

Keith still managed to wake up early this morning and enjoy another workout in the Fitness Center. He continued to workout on the stationary bicycle. After the workout he stopped by the Lido Café for some coffee, which he brought back to the room. While there he spoke with Lido Deck Steward Earl.

Likewise, Anne Marie enjoyed her workout on the Treadmill and also stopped by the Lido Café for coffee.

We spoke with Alexander, the butler, for a little while. He told us about his purchases from the dock yesterday. There were lots of vendors who were selling a variety of wooden items and it was funny to hear about the price negotiations. One of the popular items is these rather tall wooden Giraffes. For those wooden purchases made in Africa Crystal asks that all of these be turned in before boarding the ship so that they can be put into one of the ships freezers to kill all of those little bugs that are in the wood.

We enjoyed very nice breakfast in our room while we watched the Morning Show starring our Cruise Director Rick Spath and our World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston. Rick and Stacey talked about all of the effort that goes into pulling together those shows that are shown one time on the ship. Much of the music performed is written by the Crystal Orchestra, as are the skits, which are written by others from Crystal. At the same time all of the decorations are pulled together a couple of days before and when the performance is given it is very professional. The key though is that all of the planning takes place in the summer months prior to the start of the voyage. This makes each World Cruise quite unique whether one travels one leg of the World Cruise or more legs.

They also mentioned that Stacey would be teaching line dancing today. Stacey’s background is in dance and for many years she danced on cruise ships including performing in production shows .

Rick also mentioned that they would be doing a Liars Club on this sailing. The panel will include the Rabbi, Barbara Rinella, Jay Wolff and Ken Rees. It will be held on one of the upcoming sea days.

During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge he shared his thought of the day which is “I have learned that everyone wants to live on the top of the mountain but all of the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it.”

This morning Keith attended the third talk given by Enrichment Lecturer Barbara Rinella who presented “Let’s Celebrate Heroes!” This talk included her bringing to life a number of heroes and heroines from some of her favorite literary works celebrating the human spirit. Barbara’s style of presenting these books is truly wonderful. Her final hero was her father, which we thought was very touching.

At the same time as Barbara’s talk Anne Marie attended a computer class offered at the Computer University. Anne Marie has been enjoying these classes.

Afterwards, we attended another presentation given by Dr. Jay Wolff. Today, he presented “Piracy is Alive and Well.” As part of this talk Dr. Wolff talked about pirates from many years ago along with the pirates of today. Like Barbara, Dr. Wolff has his own style of presentation, which is also outstanding and truly amazing. He is able to tell a story or a few stories in each of his talks while providing facts and figures that dazzle the mind and he does this without any note. He is an amazing speaker.

While we were unable to get to the afternoon speaker, we wanted to also note that there were three lectures today which is the norm on sea days during the world cruise.

At the conclusion of Dr. Wolff’s talk we enjoyed another wonderful lunch at the Lido Café where we each had a nice salad entrée. There was a large table of fruit with all of the fruit from Mombasa.

Keith participated in the Men’s Doubles Shuffleboard tournament that was held after lunch. While he and his teammate did not place in the top three teams they had a lot of fun.

Anne Marie enjoyed a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck and later she sat out at the pool. Keith did some writing and reading and then as he has done often chatted with a few fellow passengers.

This evening we will dine with friends Mary Ellen and Jack at Prego. Our reservation is at 7:30 PM, which is later than we normally dine as we plan on being up quite late this evening.

This evening it will be our privilege to do something special for the crew. We will post more about this another time. For us, it is the Crystal team which includes the crew on the ship, and those in other locations such as the Crystal Los Angeles Office that truly make cruising with Crystal so very special for us. When we think of those who work for Crystal we think of a cohesive team working together to make the cruising experience one that people will not forget. Providing this type of excellence requires attention to detail day in and day out and this leads us to today’s thought of the day.

TODAY’S THOUGHT OF THEY DAY…….

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception. It is a prevailing attitude.” (General Colin Powell)

Keith and Anne Marie